'The Vampire Diaries': 'A View To A Kill' recap

Say what you like about The Vampire Diaries, but you can never accuse it of taking things slowly. If this show were a person, it would probably end up getting a bit of a reputation for itself.

Because when, last week, Elena suggested that Jeremy should kill Kol, who really thought that would happen? Who really thought there would be no sudden obstacle which the gang would have to evade? Who really thought it would happen the very next week?

The fact is, killing Kol off this early is something of a risk. In one fell swoop, it got rid of yet another Original vampire - who was just starting to come into his own as a delicious villain - and also solved the rather tricky problem of the hunter's mark. No more will Jeremy have to face the conflict of killing (he's done all he needs to), and now the storyline can really kick into a higher gear as we get the map to the cure.

This reveal was explosive, too - we swooped perfectly from fraternal fighting (Damon brilliantly punches Stefan when he claims that his relationship with Elena is based solely on the sire bond) to Jeremy's scream of anguish as his mark makes itself known. Damon's "here we go" as the tattoo revealed itself was something else.

And thank God - we can finally move onto the next stage of this plot, which hasn't always been entirely successful. While I'm still unsure about how likely it is that the cure will be used - considering that it would invoke serious questions for the premise of the show - we obviously still have lots of exciting times ahead, from the search for the cure to the possibly disastrous raising of Silas. And there's also the question of Rebekah. Can she be trusted, as Stefan seems to believe and Elena definitely doesn't?

Actually, Rebekah shone in this installment - I could have watched the sequence in which she was dancing alone amongst the red balloons in the empty gym over and over again (I have to admit that the music in the decade dance scenes was fantastic).

It's always fun when Rebekah's a heinous bitch, of course, but in this episode she really opened up to Stefan. I fear that her old feelings for him may be getting the best of her - after all, for the majority of the episode he was trying to distract her so that she could be screwed over - but her attempts to have a little fun are charming. And who couldn't quite believe her when she says that she does care? That she does want a life as a human, with children and someone who loves her?

She wasn't the only one to open up this week, either - I practically did a double take when Klaus began to ask Damon, of all people, for romance tips. He wants to know how he can get Caroline to forgive him - it's always a thrill when we see a hint of vulnerability about Klaus, and this was a surprisingly touching moment.

Of course, it's also exciting when we see his true villainy, and boy, was that in full effect here. If there was ever a tentative alliance between Klaus and our heroes, it's now utterly smashed with Jeremy's murder of Kol, because one thing that you can rely on is that Klaus is devoted to his family. His pure rage when he discovers what has happened is like an adrenaline shot; it's impossible to take your eyes off him as he whirls through the scene, vowing to kill Elena and Jeremy and to burn their house to the ground, and revealing his true motivations behind finding the cure - to destroy it, and then them.

Still, Klaus is - at least for the moment - incapacitated by Bonnie, who uses her increasingly concerning 'expression' to trap him (though, conveniently, she can only do it for three days in accordance with the moon, adding something of a 'time crisis' to proceedings). What happens when he's released from her spell is bound to be intriguing, though, and I'm already looking for it.

Speaking of Bonnie, I was again disappointed with her stories this week (especially considering that she seemed pretty badass last time around). While it was of minor interest that her mother has returned, it was largely just a distraction technique to keep her out of the way so that she could come in all guns blazing to save the day at the end. There's just something that has never clicked about Bonnie, and it's not working yet.

And while Kol had turned into an intriguing presence - so much so that I was almost sad to see him go, despite the possibilities that arise from his death - his altercations with Elena weren't entirely successful. The fight scenes in The Vampire Diaries are always enjoyable, but there's the slight sense that maybe we've seen too many recently. They need to be kept fresh; last-minute saves are fun, of course, and I'm always up for people getting staked. But we knew that Elena would survive, and there wasn't even enough of the splashy gore that we've had lately to keep things moving. The show needs to figure out a way to make these chases new again.

However, mostly, the episode was largely free of filler; even the quieter moments were often enlightening, and the show continues to be brilliantly put together (the opening sequence, as Stefan tried to sneak out of Rebekah's bed, was great fun and was further proof of the excellence of the Vampire Diaries music team). This installment gave us some real, solid development, and no doubt the search for the cure is going to bring us many more surprises ahead...